Rodolfo Halffter

Rodolfo Halffter
Bagaria's 1928 caricature of Halffter in El sol
Born	30 October 1900[1] Madrid, Kingdom of Spain[1]
Died	4 October 1987(1987-10-04) (aged 86)[1] Mexico City, Mexico[1]
Occupations	Composer music critic professor [1]

Rodolfo Halffter Escriche (30 October 1900 – 14 October 1987)^[1] was a Spanish composer, music critic, and professor with Mexican citizenship (from 1939). He wrote in a style always informed by his early engagement with the modernist aesthetics of Madrid's Grupo de los Ocho, taking additional inspiration from the music Claude Debussy and Arnold Schoenberg.

He came from a musical family. Though largely self-taught as a composer, he studied Schoenberg's Harmonielehre and was advised by Manuel de Falla. His music has been compared to that of Domenico Scarlatti in its neoclassicism and to Falla in its mild polytonality.

Like others in his milieu, he chose to leave Francoist Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War, emigrating to Mexico in 1939. Starting in 1953, he became the first composer to use twelve-tone technique in Mexico.

He returned to Spain beginning in the 1960s and received its Premio Nacional de Música in 1986, but he died in Mexico City, where he was also recognized. He wrote music in many genres, including for film.